Sunday, July 22, 2012

July has brought us some sickness with the kids having 3 week break instead of 2 and it continues with other family members with a persistent cough in our house.
Missy couldn't wait to get back to school and spend time with her friends. In the holidays she had a great day out with three friends shopping, she came home with a new wardrobe , no money left but they are planning on a shopping trip each school holidays.
On return to school the girls soccer team was announced and unfortunately Missy didn't make the team which she was cranky about but took it in her stride and will continue to trying out for sporting teams.
In regards to the previous post about Missy's arms she continues to improve with the use of her hands and this week has done some much improved handwriting, which she is very excited about, it is that one skill that she has never given up on and it's great to see her reap some rewards.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Back in a post in May, I mentioned the changes in Missy's arm, shoulder and hand functions. These negative changes in Missy's function brought some very dark days for me especially and but of course huge frustration for Missy.

With the mainstream therapy options, offering very little for Missy’s Dystonic CP Rehab, we have been doing ABR for 6 years now, and obviously have a lot of faith in Leonid Blyum's ABR Therapy:

'The objective of ABR is to restore proper tone to the smooth muscles/internal myofascia, which in a cascade effect restores proportions and alignment of the skeleton. During this process, the muscle tone is normalized and the arms and legs develop increasing muscle mass, normal range of mobility, and finally: sufficient strength - so that the children can develop their movements in normal spontaneous ways'

We have been focused of Missy's arms and shoulders for the last two years in particular and have seen the ABR techniques change and evolve of the years with the recent upgrades to the ABR Techniques // TransFascial Viscoelastic Applications proving really powerful.

In May, after working around Missy's elbows and between her shoulder blade and C7 for a couple of months we saw Missy arm function become more difficult and started getting locked in arm positions and the more she tried the harder it got. I took a short video of Missy struggling and sent it to Leonid for his advice; a quick and detailed response came back. Leonid explained the changes happening and while the negative outcomes seemed frustrating, he could see some positive changes and assured us we would get pass this and assigned us some new target areas.

Supported by ABR Asia- Sarah we got stuck into our new exercises, all the time answering questions from the on-lookers in Missy’s life – why is this happening? Will this get worse? When will we see an improvement?

I tried to remain focused and determined that we would get back on track with Missy’s function but while I tried to get rack up our ABR hours, we had to look at ways around Missy’s frustration, so the Eye Gaze System and Missy’s teachers aid – Miss H came to the fore with working around making the school curriculum accessible. Missy’s friends were quick to adapt as usual, picking up the eye gaze chart to get Missy’s answers.

Last week after about 50 targeted hours we could see the positive changes coming back into Missy’s function; her arms were coming forward easier with increased controlled direction and the re-emergence of the pointer finger. Missy would look at me, smile and sign my arms are good, her relief and excitement was so encouraging. She is very keen to get on the floor now and crawl, feeling more strength and control over her body, this is something she hasn’t wanted to do in 12 months.

So just as Leonid prediction we are now in a good place with hopefully more arm and hand function to come for Missy.

About Me

Missy is a much loved daughter, big sister, grandaughter and friend. Our day to day life is driven by the motivation of Missy to partcipate in everything and have a go. Missy attends a mainstream small regional school, which she loves. She uses a Dynavox to communicate and do school work on. She is passionate about drawing, loud music and fast motorbikes.